CAP Center Looking Forward to Expanded Fall Program

by Harold Wolfson; photos by John Gitlitz

(June 18, 2008) The Mamaroneck Community Action Program (CAP) Center is back in business in its newly renovated, formerly flood-damaged headquarters. It is looking forward to an expanded autumn program of helping the community’s needy, CAP officials told the Local Summit at its June 17 meeting at the Nautilus Diner.

Keith Yizar, CAP chairman, said that CAP was established in 1967 to help the local poor who were not reached by President Lyndon Johnson’s “War On Poverty.” Local poverty is still with us, he said, and the “poverty line between those who do have and those who don’t has gotten wider.” He emphasized that all local service agencies, and CAP specifically, need greater support.

Surprise Gift

His plea did not go unanswered. During the program, Mamaroneck Village Trustee Randi Rabinowitz came to the speakers’ table and presented a Rabinowitz family check in recognition of CAP’s important work and in honor of her son’s recent bar mitzvah. She said that the Jewish religion directs its adherents to be part of the world and “to help repair the world.”

Mr. Yizar said that the 2007 Mamaroneck floods were a terrible disaster for CAP, “but because of something bad, something good has happened. Our doors will be opened this fall even wider” with both new and proven programs, including after-school homework assistance, a youth leadership program, an arts program, computer training, a Madres Program for Hispanic women, a tax-payer service and a reopening of the clothing and home appliance bank.

CAP Cooperation With Other Agencies

Beverly Brewer-Villa, executive director of CAP, emphasized CAP's ongoing cooperation with other agencies and its concentration on helping those who fall through the gaps in the safety net.

She said that in addition to the programs mentioned by Mr. Yizar, CAP helps many clients behind the scenes: talking to Con Edison to keep gas and electricity running for a family having financial difficulties; taking a family to the County Department of Social Services because they do not know how to navigate the bureaucracy; offering agency referrals and introductions; providing victim assistance services and giving food at Thanksgiving and gifts for children at Christmas.

She traced CAP’s origins back to its storefront headquarters on Mamaroneck Avenue, with its day care operation “up the street.” She said CAP was created by concerned local citizens who realized many local poor families couldn’t get federal government help. Supporters subsequently raised $125,000 to purchase and refurbish a plumbing supply facility at 134 Center Avenue, CAP’s present location. She said CAP was one of the first community owned centers in the U.S.

CAP Helped Found Senior Center

Along the way, CAP helped to establish the present Senior Center in Mamaroneck Village, housed the Hispanic Resource Center in its fledgling years and presently houses and participates in the work of the Hunger Task Force and the Mamaroneck Child Development Center.

Denise Gilman, head of the Child Development Center, said her agency, a combination Head Start and day care center, provides full and partial day care for 60 children from 58 families with modest incomes. In addition, the Center provides outreach services such as ensuring that all the children are looked at by a dentist, visit a physician when necessary and enjoy occasional fun outings.

Head Start Gives Children Resiliency

She said that Head Start gives children resiliency and promotes self-esteem that in later years helps reduce the incidence of school dropouts and drug abuse.
She said her team “does a lot with very little funding.” Not only have its funds not been adjusted for inflation, but they have been cut 11 percent in the past five years. She hopes that greater awareness of the Center’s needs in the community will result in improved funding.

The presentation was hosted by the Local Summit, an informal community council that works to make the community a better place to live for everyone. Its monthly, public meetings will resume in the fall.

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